What living beings need to live

What is the difference between a tree and a cloud? And between a rock and a bird? The differences are clear, while some, inert beings like the rock and the cloud, do not have life or needs, others like the tree and the bird, have life and need to meet certain needs in order to exist. What are these needs? What do living beings need to live?

If you want to know what is really necessary for living beings, from any Kingdom, to live, keep reading this Green Ecologist article in which we tell you about it.

Living things need a habitat to which they can adapt

First, they need a place to grow, develop, and feed. This place is called a habitat. In nature we can find three types of habitat:

Air-terrestrial habitat: in it live those species that combine the air and land environment to develop. As is the case with birds, which fly and in turn use the terrestrial environment to rest.
Terrestrial habitat: this habitat includes prairies, deserts, mountains, forests and jungles. This habitat, therefore, is very varied, as are the species that live in it.
Aquatic habitat: Organisms that have adapted to live underwater live in it. This habitat encompasses oceans, seas, lakes, and rivers. Here you can learn everything about what is an aquatic ecosystem.

In this other Green Ecologist article we explain the Difference between habitat and ecological niche with examples.

Environmental conditions for living beings to live

Second, they are important habitat conditions, or in other words, the conditions of the environment:

Light: Thanks to sunlight, plants develop and grow, while providing food for other beings. In addition, the hours of daylight allow living beings to develop their metabolic cycle, that is, to keep an order in the actions they carry out throughout the day, such as sleeping or eating. Alterations in this cycle can lead to the appearance of diseases and even death.
Water: water is the most important element for life. Living beings need water for all their tissues to develop and fulfill their functions, it acts as a solvent and as a mechanism that transports vitamins and nutrients to cells. In addition, water follows a cycle, called the water cycle that helps regulate the earth's climate.
Oxygen: Without oxygen it is impossible to live, being necessary for the respiration of living beings, not only at the pulmonary level, but also in relation to cellular respiration, allowing it to function.
Mineral salts: The presence of certain minerals, such as calcium, phosphorus, magnesium or sodium, help the correct functioning of living beings, allow the elaboration of tissues, the synthesis of hormones and the regulation of metabolism and even its formation.

They are also environmental conditions, other factors such as humidity, climate or temperature. These largely determine the distribution of living beings on our planet. It is difficult to observe penguins living in the desert or camels in the North Pole, so each species adapts and locates in areas where they meet the necessary conditions for them to live.

Living things need other living things to live

Living things need to relate with other living things to survive. We can differentiate two types of fundamental relationships:

Coexistence with those of the same species

They focus on the reproduction and maintenance of the species. Some individuals are grouped together forming communities since life in society has great advantages such as common defense, the search for food, greater performance for the organization of work and the protection of the offspring. Others are related only in a casual or occasional way, as in the case of relations between male and female for reproduction.

Here we tell you more about intraspecific relationships with examples.

Coexistence with different species

They are related mainly through food. However, there are other types of interspecific relationships in which the relationship can be beneficial, harmful or neutral:

Competence: when different species have a similar lifestyle and need the same resources.
Predation: it exists when an individual survives at the cost of hunting and devouring another.
Parasitism: It occurs in small organisms, called parasites, they benefit by living inside or on a larger one, which is harmed.
I eat: It occurs when one species benefits and the other is not affected.
Cooperation: it is the type of interaction that takes place when two species benefit from each other despite being able to live separately.
Mutualism: it is similar to cooperation, but in this case organisms need each other for their survival.

These last terms of types of relationships with other living beings that we have pointed out are types of symbiosis. If you want to know more about it, check out this other Green Ecologist article in which we explain what is symbiosis in ecology with examples.